EUROROO WRAP: Socceroo Brett Emerton scored for Blackburn and then held his nerve in the penalty shootout as Rovers reached the Carling Cup semi-finals with victory over Chelsea overnight.Blackburn's Australian pair Emerton and Grella both took spot-kicks after the game had ended 3-3 after 120 minutes with both coolly converting, as goalkeeper Paul Robinson heroicly led Rovers to a 4-3 shootout victory.
Earlier Blackburn took a first-half lead through Nikola Kalinic before Emerton flashed a 20-yard effort just past as Rovers sensed an upset against an understrength Chelsea side.
Chelsea rung the changes at the break and sub Didier Drogba immediately scored before Salomon Kalou gave the Blues the lead on 52 minutes.
Grella came off the bench for Blackburn on the hour mark and minutes later Rovers were level when Emerton's swirling cross fooled Chelsea keeper Hilario and sailed straight in through the Portuguese's legs.
Benni McCarthy scored a 93rd minute penalty in extra-time before Paulo Ferreira sent the game to a penalty shootout with a late, late equaliser, but Rovers ultimately won out with Michael Ballack and Gael Kakuta failing from the spot.
In the Europa League overnight, Scott McDonald played a full game for Celtic as they recorded a 2-0 win over Hapoel Tel-Aviv but were still eliminated from the competition.
McDonald had a few early chances finding the net in an offside position on 4 minutes before drawing a good save from Hapoel stopper Vincent Enyeama on 20 minutes after Aiden McGeady's good work.
On 22 minutes, McDonald cleverly took a quick free-kick which allowed McGeady to race forward and set up Georgios Samaras for the opener.
Quarter of an hour later, McDonald found space in a dangerous area and evaded Enyeama's challenge before crossing for Samaras who saw his header rebound back off the post.
Barry Robson's grabbed Celtic's second with a curling free-kick before McDonald missed a late sitter.
Elsewhere, David Carney played a full game as FC Twente lost 1-0 at home to Fenerbahce, while Tim Cahill also put in a full shift as Everton won 1-0 at AEK Athens.
In Korea's K-League grand final, Sasa Ognenovski was back for Seongnam Ilhwa after suspension as they drew 0-0 at home against Jeonbuk Motors in the first-leg played in front of over 21,000 supporters.
Ognenovski, who had been suspended for a stomping offence in Seongnam's first playoff a fortnight ago against Incheon, played a full game in the goalless stalemate.
The return-leg in Jeonbuk will be played on Sunday and Seongnam boss Shin Tae-Yong said, "We are ready to play the second leg and have all our key players. It will be an exciting match."
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